Sweet Sixteen

I’ve had the opportunity to watch my boys grow up. Just recently, they both completed college — the oldest graduated from law school in Fayetteville last year and baby boy is just about finished with his first year of teaching history at West Junior High.

And I’m super proud of both of them. But that does just leave us with one kid left at home… at least for a couple more years.

You see, the last little bird in the nest is getting older. In fact, today is her 16th birthday. That’s too close to being grown! This fall, she’ll be a junior at West Memphis High School! (Sorry, I mean the Academies of West Memphis) It’s crazy, right? Two years from now, she’ll be graduating from high school and heading off to college!

This Thursday, assuming she passes the test, she’ll have a driver’s license. The next step is she wants to get a parttime job. Before you know it, she’ll be gone…

Then what will my wife and I do? I mean, I know the whole point of having kids is that you raise them up and prepare them to go out into the world and make their own way, but then what? Since 1994, my wife and I have raised the kids. Like that was the thing that we did, like “our thing”… it’s going to be weird turning that off (or at setting it to “adult children” mode). Sure they’ll still be around, but they won’t be under our roof and we’ll be all alone (with each other).

But for now, it’s a time of celebration. We don’t really do big birthday parties in my family. A few times, we’ve

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done Chuck E. Cheese or the skating rink or rented out the Delta Gym, but it’s mostly been dinner of the birthday boy or girl’s choice, cake and a gift.

Well, a few months ago, baby girl told us she wanted to have a seafood boil out at “The Hill,” my wife’s grandparents’ place out in rural Lee County.

She had a short list of friends she wanted to invite along with our family, so we said sure.

And of course, the price of everything (especially food) has skyrocketed. I don’t know if you’ve priced seafood lately, but it’s ridiculous. It might have been cheaper to just buy her a car!

Well, anyway, this past Saturday, we had the big Sweet Sixteen blowout and everyone had a good time, the weather cooperated and it was a day of food, volleyball, badminton and four-wheeler riding.

Next year, she’s getting a cake and a card…

But for now, I’ve got a 16-year-old daughter and she’s pretty great. Because she can’t seem to stay busy enough, now she has taken up golf. Because why not?

She’s practicing with the West Memphis Blue Devil golf team this spring to see if she can get good enough to play on the high school team. Of course, even if she passes her driver’s test, she can’t actually drive solo for six months (which I did not know was a thing until very recently). So, now I’ve got to take her to and pick her up from gold practice! I think if you added it up, I’d be willing to bet I’ve spent five years of my live picking up or taking my kids to one kind of practice or another…

But I’m not complaining. A while back I saw a thing online that said, “One day you’ll look around and there won’t be anybody left to take to practice.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot, with softball season just ending… I’ve only got two more seasons left and then what?

I’m going to need some grandchildren before too long!